Amnesia dark descent vs penumbra black plague

[Bridge]

From an interview with Thomas Grip:

"...Another aspect Grip notes is "no enemies," which he clarifies as follows: "What I mean is that we need to stop thinking of any creatures that we put into the game as 'enemies.' The word enemy makes us think about war and physical conflict, which is really not the focus in a horror game."

And we (read: you) need to stop thinking that semantics have any effect on reality. The monsters are what they are and you can never change that, no matter what you call them. In the end it's just not worth the energy. Just refer to them as enemies because it's an idea that is instantly recognizable to everybody and thus everyone will know what you are talking about. That is why we are flailing are fingers on labelled pieces of plastic and moving our mouths right? To communicate?

I also don't want to impugn Grip's game design but up until now all of his released games have incorporated elements of physical conflict. Amnesia has so many sections where the player is in immediate danger of being killed that I would call it a major focus of the game. Now, how does that relate to what he's saying about war and physical conflict not being the focus of a horror game? In a life-or-death situation, the predator is the prey's worst enemy. You don't think the animal in question is fighting for its life just for fun? I also seriously doubt an antelope would want to get into a semantic argument with you about what the lion that's eating it actually is. Who cares if it's a denizen of nature or a fucking enemy? It's still a huge obstacle in the path of survival.